At the Media Bill Kenya School of Monetary meeting, I proposed that neither government controls nor media is left alone to self-regulate itself. I asked for a independent media watch institute headed by consumers - the *confused* recipients of government propaganda and media self-interest/preservation angles. Obviously this proposal was unpopular to either.
"In many a European country public broadcasting performance has come under severe
criticism. The institution is said to have too much power with too little responsibility and no
room for holding it to account. At the same time journalists are blamed for being too cynical,
too scandal and hype focused and, in a competitive market, too much driven by the question
'what sells'. Politicians complain that the media try to set the political agenda, that policy
making is unduly influenced and, worse, that journalists tell half truths and whole lies. It is as
if the institutions legally or professionally entrusted with symbolic power, are losing the trust
of those with political power...."
'...The press serves as a watchdog for democracy, but a watchdog that barks too often is
useless. An information channel that distorts the information fulfils no function. In any
other sector where the product is so vital for society and the risk of a loss of quality so
great, the government would have intervened. The principle of press freedom makes
this impossible. Consequently this is a task for the press itself, given the potential
danger and social harm of media that behave as a political actor without showing
accountability..'
Death Duties: Kelly, Fortuyn, and the challenge to media governance" http://www.yle.fi/ripe/Papers/Brants_Bardoel.pdf
You will find I have retreated to "hide" park on this one.
Alex
On 5/21/07, bitange@jambo.co.ke
<bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:Dear All,
I feel compelled to respond to Kanja's surprising response to the Media
Bill. Media especially MOA has decided to distort information with blatant
disregard of a journalist's cardinal rule (objectivity) to poison the
People of Kenya with lies and propaganda;
Here are the Facts
.
The Bill was drafted by stakeholders among then Kanja himself;
The content especially on the code of conduct for journalist were
transposed from the current code of conduct with the Media Council;
All stakeholders were kept informed throughout the stages of the Bill
and Kanja as the former Chair of MOA received letters informing him of the
progress;
The Bill does not seek to control, it simply gives some teeth to the
Media council to regulate professional journalists;
Regulation is not control (think, we all are free to drive but we must
drive on the left hand side);
Without regulation you have quacks as journalists who may plunge the
country into chaos (just listen to Venacular FM stations to understand why
we need professionalism in Journalism and remember what happened with Hope
FM);
The controversy in the Bill arises from funding. MOA and KUJ did not
want to fund the Advisory Board and the Media Council instead they asked
the Government to finance; and
Government funding comes with certain strings as you all understand and
even if you were to fund you will expect the recipient to adhere to
certain rules (we have gone through this with the World Bank even though
we did not like it).
Bitange Ndemo
----------------------------------------------
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
---------------------------------------------
"easy access to the world"
_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet@kictanet.or.ke
http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Please unsubscribe or change your options at
http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alexgakuru.lists%40gmail.com